Free DDP reviews! Photos and lots 'o opinions! Updated 11/5 with 50's PT

[Pixiedust34]

great photos - especially of the old school bread - i miss it already...

I'm so glad we had a chance to try the school bread before they changed it! Now we'll have to give the new version a try sometime. I hope it's as good as the old version. It was such a classic pastry (perhaps the "signature pastry") of the bakery and I wonder why they changed it? It certainly seemed popular enough as it was.

 

[Pixiedust34]

"Boma Lite" is a frequent description of Tusker House, and that is spot on!

Tusker House is similar to Boma in the food offerings (missed were the soups, Zebra Domes, and watermelon rind salad, though those recipes are exclusive to Boma) and there was a nice variety of food. If you love Boma, you'll love Tusker House! There is also a nice selection of non-African inspired food here for the not-so-adventurous eaters and kids. The buffet is set up in pods like at Boma and not in a typical buffet line like at Crystal Palace and Hollywood & Vine. I like the pods as you can walk right up to whatever it is you'd like to have. All three of us found food that we enjoyed. Ds especially loved the breads and the hummus dips.

We had an 11:30 ADR and they had us wait until about 11:20 to check in. The check in area is in a covered seating area with a bar and there was plenty of room for those waiting for tables. We just sat and relaxed in the shade while waiting. Once 11:30 rolled around, people were seated quickly.

The food was flavorful and fresh! You could easily make a meal of the salads and breads/dips alone. The entrees were good, and the dessert bar offered a nice variety of goodies. Our drinks came quickly and so did the refills. Service was prompt.
Dd was wearing a birthday button and our server brought over a cupcake for her.

The photo with the 3 plates is our salad/bread plates and the other plate is my entree plate. A dessert plate is in the third photo.

We are sooooooooo eating here again on our next trip! It's less pricey than Boma if you do lunch, and it's right in Animal Kingdom so transportation is not an issue. We might even give breakfast a whirl, as they put out a good breakfast spread too and breakfast is a character meal here. But their lunch is good, too and it provides a good a/c break mid-day, which is much needed at Animal Kingdom in August. Decisions, decisions.........

Bonus Animal Kingdom photos:

These are Hidden Mickeys that we found at Conservation Station.

 

[piglet75]

Yum! Subscribing....GO STEELERS!

 

[disneydreamin247]

Everything at TH looks so YUMMY! I have dinner there in 3 days. I was considering canceling it and just doing Pizzafari but I think you may have convinced me to keep it. Thanks for the great review.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Everything at TH looks so YUMMY! I have dinner there in 3 days. I was considering canceling it and just doing Pizzafari but I think you may have convinced me to keep it. Thanks for the great review.

We loved Tusker House! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. There was a great variety of food so I think that the buffet offerings would be pleasing to anyone.

Yum! Subscribing....GO STEELERS!

This is OT to the WDW food reviews, but we make it to Pittsburgh a few times/year and we do try to eat at Primantis once in a while. It's probably been a year since we've done Primantis, and we'd love to have a Primantis during a game! I know I could make a homemade Primantis, but it wouldn't be the same. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but for those who are reading this and wondering what Primantis is, check it out.
http://www.primantibrothers.com/ It's Pittsburgh's best sandwich! It would get two thumb's up for a review!!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Really enjoying your reviews and pics. And we really liked Tusker House too.

 

[piglet75]

This is OT to the WDW food reviews, but we make it to Pittsburgh a few times/year and we do try to eat at Primantis once in a while. It's probably been a year since we've done Primantis, and we'd love to have a Primantis during a game! I know I could make a homemade Primantis, but it wouldn't be the same. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but for those who are reading this and wondering what Primantis is, check it out.
http://www.primantibrothers.com/ It's Pittsburgh's best sandwich! It would get two thumb's up for a review!!

Oh my goodness.....my mouth is watering thinking of Primanti's. Corned Beef all the way! We're headed out to Pittsburgh in mid-Nov for the Steelers/Chargers game, and we'll definitely be making a stop there! Okay, back on topic now!

 

[Pixiedust34]

Really enjoying your reviews and pics. And we really liked Tusker House too.

Thanks! Tusker House used to be one of our favorite cs locations on all of WDW property and we were so bummed when they changed it to a ts location. Now it's one of our favorite ts locations on all of Disney property!

Oh my goodness.....my mouth is watering thinking of Primanti's. Corned Beef all the way! We're headed out to Pittsburgh in mid-Nov for the Steelers/Chargers game, and we'll definitely be making a stop there! Okay, back on topic now!

Have a great time at the game! I'm pretty sure that they sell Primantis at the stadium now so you might be able to enjoy one right at the game! Wave the Terrible Towel for us, OK! : )

 

[Pixiedust34]

Even though you have to wait in different lines for your food, I like Sunshine Seasons because they offer a nice variety. The food here is always good and fresh, and the desserts are excellent for a counter service location!

We ate here on our arrival day and were at Sunshine Seasons right at the breakfast to lunch turnover, so we were free to order remaining breakfast items or new lunch items.

Me: stir fry (you pick the ingredients), Soarin creme brulee (a citrus flavor), water
Ds: stir fry, a chocolate dessert (the Asian Bomb??), water
Dd: French Toast kid's meal, smores brownie, water (I was forced to use a snack credit to get dd's dessert. The cast member said that she wasn't allowed to mix a kid's meal with an adult dessert)

We all loved the food!

After eating, we did the Living With the Land attraction which is one of Dd's favorite attractions. It goes without saying that we LOVED Soarin!

Bonus photo from Living With The Land--Isn't this cute!?

 

[Pixiedust34]

Sorry it took so long for me to continue with the food reviews. Everyday life has been keeping me hopping!


This was our 3rd time eating at Le Cellier, and the kids picked it for the "repeat restaurant" in the WS. It was a good use of our credits on the free dining plan as it's a pricey place.

Le Cellier has a new pilot menu and I wonder if it's a preview of coming attractions for other table service restaurants. In addition to the regular menu, there is an option to select your appetizer, entree, and dessert from the fixed menu (no substitutions) at a fixed price. This is similar to the French Menu at Chefs, though at Chefs you are not permitted to order from the fixed menu if you're on the dining plan. At Le Cellier you are permitted to order from the fixed menu which does give you a free appetizer. I was going to pay OOP for the cheddar cheese soup, so the fixed menu saved us money.

Me: (selections from the fixed menu) cheddar cheese soup, prime rib, maple creme brulee, iced tea
Ds: (selections from the fixed menu) cheddar cheese soup, prime rib, chocolate "moose", chocolate milk
Dd: kid's pasta, chocolate "moose", chocolate milk.

There was an issue with ordering dd the kid's meal (the server messed up and had to run our cards through twice), but in the end I did not have to pay OOP for her meal like at Whispering Canyon.

At Le Cellier, different sections of the restaurant represent different parts of Canada and all of the servers are from Canada. They talk to you about your region. All meals start off with breadsticks that also represent different regions of Canada. The breadsticks are pretzel, multi-grain, and sourdough and they are soooooooooooo good!!

The cheddar cheese soup is one of their signature dishes and it's excellent! It's extra good if you dip your pretzel bread in it. I've made the recipe at home several times. We could easily make a meal of the breadsticks and soup alone.

My favorite entree, maple filet mignon, was removed from the menu so I gave the prime rib a whirl.

The prime rib very pretty good, but it didn't measure up to the New York Strip steak at Coral Reef as that set an extremely high standard. The potatoes were OK--nothing special. Ds loved his prime rib and ate all of it (!) but didn't care for the potatoes. Dd said her pasta was good. All in all, it was a good meal!

My maple creme brulee was excellent and it's one of my favorite desserts in all of WDW. This is another "I could have licked the dish clean" dessert! The kids enjoyed their chocolate "moose!" I'm sorry there's no picture of the moose. I thought I had a picture of it in Photobucket and I can't find it. You can sort of see the moose in the background of this photo.

Maple Creme Brulee:

I liked getting the all maple creme brulee better than the maple/vanilla sampler they had in the past.

Bonus Canada photo:

I love Off Kilter!

This is the first time we saw the updated O Canada movie, and we liked it.

 

[Pixiedust34]

ABC Commissary isn't one of our favorite counter services places at WDW, but we end up eating here for every trip because it's in a convenient location, it has a/c, and it's rarely busy. We did attempt to eat at Backlot Express on this trip and the lines there were too long. We headed over to ABC Commissary and walked right up to the counter.

Me: Asian salad, strawberry parfait, water
Ds: Fried fish and fries, chocolate mousse, water
Dd: (kid's meal) chicken nuggets & fries, cookie, and water

I didn't care for the salad. It was mostly iceburg lettuce and the dressing was bland. Usually an entree salad even at counter service places has an option to add grilled chicken and the option to add chicken (or any other meat) wasn't offered here. It was a boring, not-too-good salad that I will not order again. On the flip side, the strawberry parfait tasted fresh and was flavorful! I was pleasantly surprised with enjoying the dessert.

The kids said that their meals were OK. I tried a half of one of dd's chicken nuggets and didn't care for it. She didn't mind, but to me it was more of a "nugget" with a processed taste than a "chicken tender" with a fresh taste. Ds liked his fish & fries, though he's pretty easy to please with just about any food.

Anyway, it was a quick lunch and we did enjoy the a/c break. I'm sure we'll be hitting ABC Commissary again for the a/c, short lines, and location. : ) Eating in a/c on a super hot day is refreshing!

Bonus DHS photo:

I love this Mr. Potato Head! His interactions with the crowd are great!

 

[DisneyFan83]

Awesome reports!

 

[Jenvenza]

Great reports!!

But when did they change the school bread??? I was there last month and it was the original!!!

 

[Pixiedust34]

Awesome reports!

Thanks for reading, and for posting!

Great reports!!

But when did they change the school bread??? I was there last month and it was the original!!!

I think they changed it shortly after our trip (9/3 to 9/11). I'm glad I had a chance to try the "old" school bread. It was good! I hope the new version is good, too.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Still loving the reviews, Tusker House looks great, I almost wish we hadn't planned all our week in ADRs and had a free day to try it out.

Agree with you completely about the children/adult meals, if there was a set procedure it would make sense. Why don't they just let you pay adult price for large kids meals, there must be some picky adults out there that want to do it.

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
Your reviews are great. Thanks for taking your time to share them!!

 

[Pixiedust34]

Still loving the reviews, Tusker House looks great, I almost wish we hadn't planned all our week in ADRs and had a free day to try it out.

Agree with you completely about the children/adult meals, if there was a set procedure it would make sense. Why don't they just let you pay adult price for large kids meals, there must be some picky adults out there that want to do it.

Tusker House is a must-repeat for us! We liked everything we ate there.

I'm still scratching my head over why 10 y.o. dd wasn't allowed to use an adult credit for a kid's meal at a couple of places, but am grateful that at least some restaurants were OK with her doing so. There should be a consistent rule about it. We won't have the dining plan on our next trip, so we'll have more flexibility with this as when you pay OOP they don't seem to mind if a 10 y.o. wants a kid's meal.

Hi
Your reviews are great. Thanks for taking your time to share them!!

Thank you!

 

[FirstMagic]

I'm enjoying your reviews and photos, and I'm so glad you won Year of a Million Dream hats!!!! We won some last year, but I didn't see anybody wearing them this year so I thought maybe they weren't giving them out anymore. Just a little thing like that goes a long way for making a trip special, doesn't it?

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'm enjoying your reviews and photos, and I'm so glad you won Year of a Million Dream hats!!!! We won some last year, but I didn't see anybody wearing them this year so I thought maybe they weren't giving them out anymore. Just a little thing like that goes a long way for making a trip special, doesn't it?

Thank you! It was so much fun to win our Mickey Ears, especially because we won them shortly before we had to leave to catch ME to the airport. It was like taking a little bit of extra pixie dust home with us.

I have a few more places to review, and I'll try to do that soon.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'm sorry it's been taking me so long to carry on with our reviews!

This was our first meal at 50's Prime Time, and we loved it!

Your server is your "mom," "babysitter," or other relative and for the entire meal they interact with you in that manner. The people at your immediate surrounding tables are your "cousins" and you all interact together. When we were seated, our cousins were from Brazil and Chicago. But during our meal, those cousins finished and 2 new families moved in. They were both from Pittsburgh, and we are big Steelers fans. Both ds & I were wearing our Steelers shirts, so it was like we really were cousins!

Our "mom" made ds set the table and take the menus back for her. She airplane fed our "cousin" his green beans when he didn't eat any. She threatened to spoon feed ds if he didn't eat 2 more beans. He decided to eat them on his own. It was a hoot! She had all of the cousins sing Happy Birthday to dd. We were reminded to keep our elbows off of the table and to behave. We were seated shortly after checking in, and service was prompt. In fact, I don't know how our server managed to be so prompt while she was watching for elbows on the table and keeping an eye on everyone's consumption of veggies!

The food was very good! Our meal plan covered malts and shakes for our beverages, and that's what we had to drink. Dd and I had PB&J shakes. I was a little hesitant to order that because it doesn't sound good, but it's their specialty and it was excellent! Ds liked his chocolate malt.

All of the entree items were great. Note that the fried chicken meal is usually served with cooked greens and we substituted green beans with no problem. The beans were nice and crisp, just the way I like them! The fried chicken was good without being too greasy and the mashed potatoes were also good. Dd was able to order an adult portion of mac & cheese which was way too big for her but it did prevent me from having to pay OOP for a kid's meal. I enjoyed my angel food cake with berries as much as the kids enjoyed their brownie sundaes. The dessert menu is on a View Master. How fun is that?!

The waiting area looks like it was plucked straight from the 1950s. Little TVs played shows from the 50s. All in all, it was a fun dining experience and I wouldn't hesitate to dine here again as long as we're all in a playful mood to play along with the server. It's not too expensive, either, which is nice if you're not on the DDP.


Bonus Studios photo:

I love the entire Toy Story Mania queue area!